‘Politically Done’: MAGA Influencers Rip GOP Senator For Telling CNN Migrants Should Go Through a ‘Process’ Before Deportation
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) raised the ire of several MAGA influencers this week by telling CNN’s Kasie Hunt that illegal immigrants are afforded some due process under U.S. law – even if that process is different from that for a U.S. citizen.
Lankford was asked by Hunt on Tuesday, “President Trump sat down for an extensive interview with Kristen Welker at Meet the Press over the weekend. She asked him whether he would uphold the Constitution in providing due process to people who are deported and his answer was not yes. Are you confident that President Trump will uphold the Constitution?”
“I am. I think his answer was, I’ve got good attorneys advising me on all those things, and they’re going to make sure they get it right,” Lankford replied, adding:
What’s been confusing on this is some people see due process like us as American citizens, and that’s a right to a jury trial, that’s all those different things. That’s not true for due process for someone who’s not a citizen of the United States. It’s a different process. It’s often just literally what people call an immigration judge, which is not a typical federal judge or a state judge; this is someone that’s in the bureaucracy.
So there is a very different process for it, but yes, there is a need to give an opportunity for someone to be able to make an argument before they are removed from the country.
The Supreme Court’s rulings on Trump’s deportations have made the same point as Lankford. The Supreme Court previously upheld Trump using the Alien Enemies Act, but ruled, “detainees subject to removal orders under the AEA are entitled to notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal.” Adding that “notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief.” A federal judge has since ruled against Trump using the AEA in a specific case, citing the lack of an official foreign threat.
Trump’s indefinite imprisonment of migrants to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison without any kind of due process has roiled U.S. politics in recent weeks, especially as the Supreme Court has ordered the administration to “facilitate” the return of one of those migrants. The U.S. Constitution does guarantee due process for all people, not just citizens, on sovereign U.S. territory.
Lankford’s comments were quickly picked up by pro-Trump media outlets like Breitbart and the Blaze.
Pro-Trump organizer and influencer Charlie Kirk shared a clip of the interview posted to X by the Blaze and added, “He wants 20 million trials for the invaders he and Democrats allowed to come in. Lankford is politically done and he knows it.”
“I’m so sick of these fake ass weak cowards in the Republican Party running to fake news CNN to undermine the voters and the President,” fumed MAGA commentator Catturd on X.
Below are some additional comments form the right hammering Lankford:
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